Chasing Paradise
by Zaphara98
Summary: Sarah didn't mind being normal. She didn't mind living a boring life, did she? She and her friend Tina went into the city to celebrate their friendship, so of course something has to go wrong. Sarah doesn't want a new life, she just wants to go somewhere where being weird is normal and she can live peacefully for the rest of her life. Sarah is chasing paradise. (Adopted)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I adopted this story from Demigodflock, so most characters belong to them. This chapter is one that they wrote.**

**Disclaimer: Amazingly, when I woke up this morning, I didn't see the face of James Patterson staring back at me. Of course, if I had, I would probably have screamed. But that's beside the point that I'm trying to make, which is that I don't own Maximum Ride.**

* * *

"Tina!" I screamed, looking back at her as she was tackled onto the ground by buff men clad in all black jumpsuits.

They gagged Tina and threw a bag over her head, in the low light from the street lamps I could see her get thrown in a black van parked in the alley next to us. It was my first time in the city alone, and, of course, something had to go wrong. I forgot running, and started sprinting right at the people who took Tina. I jumped right at one of them, yelling something stupid and possibly obscene.

I didn't stand a chance as he ignored my wimpy punches and kicks. Some other guy took an old, musty bandana and tied it around my mouth to shut me up. I almost choked on it's disgusting flavor. They threw a dirty burlap sack over my head and threw me in the van with Tina. I hit the bottom of the van hard, and I felt the van lurch slightly to the side as all of the kidnappers piled into the van.

The van started moving, and I squirmed around in the van before the shock wore off and I realized they hadn't tied my hands or legs up. I reached up and pulled the burlap sack off my head, and untied my gag. I reached into my pocket for my cell-phone and unlocked it to call the police. I looked at how many bars I had, there weren't any. The van must have had a cell phone jammer thing so Tina and my kidnappers didn't need to take our phones or anything. That must've meant that our abductors had lots of money already and planned on taking teenagers and other people often.

I kept my phone unlocked to use the light to look around at where I was, and where Tina was. Tina had her gag and sack off, and was crawling towards me. I started to crawl towards her when something, namely some one, got in the way. It was a boy, probably ten, a couple years younger than Tina and I. He was passed out on the floor. I poked him a few times and he moaned loudly. I put my finger to my mouth to shush him.

Since I told him to be quiet, the obvious thing to do was scream, and scream he did. He started spazzing out, throwing his arms and legs everywhere. He even kicked me in the face. "Shut up!" I said to him. "Now they know we're out of our bindings!"

There were a few grumblings from the front of the van. I groaned and hit the wall loudly.

"Since they know we're not tied up in a nice pretty package anymore, maybe we should make lots of noise and attract attention." Tina offered.

I rolled my eyes, but shrugged. Nobody could see me shrug since my phone light died. Tina started banging on the walls and yelling. I heard a hiss come from the front of the van, and I breathed in a deep breath. I started getting dizzy, and the boy started to freak out more. "No! I don't want to go back to sleep again!" He cried.

There was a thud and I presumed that Tina had hit the floor, it wasn't much longer before I hit the ground in an unconscious heap.

* * *

I woke up in a big room, filled with teenagers Tina and my age. The boy from the van wasn't there, but I hadn't exactly like him all that much.

"You must be new here." A tall, thin girl with knotty brown hair. She laughed nasally and I wanted to hit her, what good could possibly come from being kidnapped?

"What kind of place is this?" I asked huffily.

"The best place ever!" She laughed, "Why do you seem so down about being here? This place is great!"

"Great?" I yelled, "I was forced here against my will, and have no idea where I am! How is that great?"

"Because." She said condescendingly, "We get to be a part of the new generation. A generation that will lead the new world!" She pointed at Tina and me, "Get ready, because we're going to be leading soon, and you need to get with it."

"It?" I asked angrily, "What is "it"? Some sort of drug that makes you all high and mighty, 'cause if it is, you're probably overdosing on it."

She glared at me. "Somebody looks like she wants to fight." She laughed again. "Of course we all know you're going to lose." She whipped out a pair of bright red wings, they looked like a robin's wings that grew large enough to fit a human.

I scrambled backwards. I had heard of that Maximum Ride girl, but I had thought she was just a myth that people made up to help cover up all of the accidents and terror attacks. I hit one of the walls and stood up against it. "I'm just trying to find answers. I promise I wasn't trying to disrespect you. I swear!"

She left her wings out by her side, and all of the other kids started to show off strange mutations. One girl had giant claws that she was picking at. Another girl was changing colors and shapeshifting for her friends. There was even a girl that was hanging from the smooth ceilings with just her hands, another one was pretending to be spiderman next to her.

"Whuuuuuuuu?" Tina moaned. "Whasss going on?"

The robin girl rolled her eyes and started coddling Tina and telling her all about how "magical" and "amazing" the place we were at was. I sat by the wall and moped for a long time. I didn't know how long I sat there before the wall behind me fell out and I realized it was a door.

"Oh, just the subject we were looking for." A buff man in black grumbled. He pulled me up by the collar of my shirt and and dragged me through a labyrinth of halls. "I'm gonna enjoy seeing what they pick out for this one." He mumbled.

I was scared. I didn't know what was going on, and it scared me.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Chasing Paradise was an idea created by demigodflock that I adopted.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. First: I'm not middle-aged. Second: I'm not a guy.**

* * *

"So you must be..." A hispanic woman with a friendly smile started, before looking down at her clipboard to see who I was. "Sarah Tanner. Right?"

I nodded slowly. I was still afraid, despite the woman's warm smile and bright eyes that put the bright white walls and furniture to shame. I knew to keep my heart guarded still, I would not be one of the people who fell for kidnapper's fake affection and end up with Stockholm Syndrome. I stayed quiet. The sterile feel of the room offset the woman's warm, motherly demeanor.

"I just want to ask you a few questions, would you please answer them?"

I didn't answer. If they knew what my name was, they probably knew all they needed to know. They probably had access to my medical records, financial information, and my parent's information. That meant they would know much I was worth, and how much I could be ransomed for. The woman sat down next to me.

"I know this is hard for you. I know it's hard for your family too. This is hard on everyone."

I looked away from her, "What do you know. If you thought what you're doing hurt people then you wouldn't be doing this."

She put her hand gently on my shoulder. "I know it's hard on you. But you're going to make the world a better place."

"Please. You don't know that. You don't know anything about me. If you really wanted to make the world a better place, you wouldn't kidnap people. Don't tell me about how you don't kidnap people, and that you work for people who do. Or better yet," I laughed bitterly, "Don't tell me that your 'company' or whatever doesn't kidnap people. It's a lie and you know it. I don't want to help you save the world, I want to enjoy my own world in peace."

"You were kidnapped?" She seemed genuinely surprised. "The people here, the 99 percenters. They recruit kids."

"Yeah, off the streets through targeted kidnapping." I scoffed.

"Then how do they have your information?"

"Did I mention targeted? That means they find people and make a file on them, hack for information and then bada-bing. Kidnapped kids and 'duped' employees." I didn't actually believe that she didn't know the kids weren't kidnapped. "How can you not know that? Surely another kid has told you about this. Unless you don't actually care."

"Well this group has such a large base with teenagers and sometimes even children that they don't need to do that like other groups."

"Other groups?" I yelled, "There are other groups like this? Taking kids and doing who know's what with them?"

"No. There used to be this other group. They had doctors tell mothers their babies had died, and then that group would take those babies and experiment on them."

"I've never heard of them, how do I know you're telling the truth?"

"My daughter, Maximum Ride was one of those babies."

"Oh. So this whole Maximum Ride thing is true? I thought it was just some lie that people were using to cover everything up. You know, a scapegoat. I didn't actually think they existed."

"They do. And the goal of the 99 percen-"

"Save the explanation for someone who cares. And someone who doesn't know. Almost everyone at my school is obsessed with it. Personally I don't think it's a good idea. Killing 99 percent of the human population seems like a bad idea. I mean, how do you save that one percent? Also, why would any human support it? The kids at my school think that somehow they're going to be picked." I laughed stoically. "It's kind of funny. The only kid in the entire school gets picked doesn't believe in the cause. Besides, you're human, so why do you support it?"

"I've lived a long full life. And I want a better world, for the earth, and for my daughter and her family." She gazed wistfully, "I know it's selfish of me, but I want to stay with her as well. We could restart this world properly."

"Look, I don't care. I don't want this to happen. Can't you just reinforce recycling? Something that doesn't involve killing lots of people. How can you live with that?"

She shook her head, as if snapping out of a trance. "Look. I have to do this questionare." She looked back at her clipboard. "These questions are a waste of time." She dropped her clipboard onto the floor.

I rolled my eyes at her, "So you're trying to establish a cool, off the rules, oblivious, motherly relationship with me. It's not going to work. Whatever you're trying to make me do, you're going to have to force me to, and it won't be pretty."

"I'm not trying to do anything. I just need to get to know you so I can chose something that's right for you."

"How about nothing."

"That's not an option."

"So what are my options?" I asked impatiently.

"I can't tell you. Because you might chose something like a dragon because you like dragons and want lots of power. I can't let that happen. So I ask you questions about your personality so I can chose properly."

"Well after due study of myself, I say that no whatever is a proper fit for me. I'm content with what I am."

She looked me in the eye. "That's why we chose you. Being selected won't go to your head." She picked her clipboard up, and started scribbling on it, I saw her cross things out.

"Let me guess. You're crossing off things that wouldn't match me." I rolled my eyes. "I think you should just cross everything out, don't waste your time on me. Tina's probably the one you want."

"Tina? Your friend? She has no reason to be here, she most likely will not make it. They have her in a different room right now, and I think she won't make it past the test phase. She believes too closely in the cause."

"Wouldn't you want people to believe in your cause?" I asked, trying to protect Tina. I knew Tina would do more good than I would, she had always been the good kid who helped people. We used to go to homeless shelters and bring in sweaters that we'd made. Tina taught me all sorts of crafty things. She was the only person who had broken through my tough shell. Knowing that she would be killed made me want to break down and cry, but I kept it inside. I had always kept it inside, until I had met Tina. Then she joined the 99 percenters, and everything changed.

Tina had joined the 99 percent group a few weeks before, she thought that they were going to change everyone to be changed and that the world would co-exist and that she and I would be among those people. After that, Tina and my seamless relationship started to fall apart. We slowly drifted, and I had taken her to the city to try and fix it. I guessed that she hated me because I had gotten her into the situation somehow.

"Yes, and no. She thinks that she's destined to do good now." Tina had always thought it was her job to do good things to people, and at times I thought that was why she was friends with me. I knew Tina pitied me because I was always alone, but I didn't know if she actually liked me or pitied me.

"But that one girl in-"

"She's phase one. You're phase three." The lady interrupted. She didn't even know what I was talking about, and yet she understood exactly what I meant.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

She shook her head, her dark brown pony-tail swaying quickly. "I can't tell you, but you'll find out soon enough." She snapped her tan fingers together. "Aha!"

"Aha what?"

"I've figured out your match." She stepped off of the therapy sofa we were sitting on, and started writing furiously on a piece of paper. I thought she was going to write so fast that the paper would light on fire.

She was writing, and I decided to get up. Considering the fact that I was kidnapped, I had lots of freedoms.

The door flew open and a worried looking balding man with glassed walked in. "Valencia, is everything okay in here?" He asked frantically. "You haven't sent me the papers I need, I thought you were in trouble. Ella and I were worried."

"Everything is fine Jeb. I just needed more time with this one." She said pointing to me. She ripped a paper off of her paper pad and handed it to the "Jeb" guy.

"Thank you." He looked over the paper very carefully. "Aotus zonalis?"

"Yes, I think it's a good match for this one."

"This one is right here!" I growled. "Can't you people ask me if I want to be matched with a monkey or whatever?"

The old guy looked at me and I thought his eyes were going to bug out of his sockets. "How did you know?"

"I did a science project on monkeys once." I explained to him. "Put your eyes back in your head. I actually pay attention in school. Didn't you read that in my file?" I added mockingly. He grabbed my wrist firmly and pulled me through more halls, jabbering on about how great I was going to be as a subject and how he wished he could keep me. I didn't understand what he was talking about, and I didn't care either.

I just missed my house and my family, even if they weren't the greatest. Most of all, I missed yarn, because it reminded me of my friendship with Tina before she changed. She used to come to my house to do messy crafts because her parents wouldn't let her do messy crafts and mine didn't care. We used to make messes and clean them up, somehow we made it fun. I missed that most of all. I hoped that everything would go well for Tina, but I knew in my heart she wasn't going to be safe.

Jeb stopped another one of the special doors that didn't have handles, and looked like a part of the wall. The facility seemed to have a lot of those handless doors, probably so nobody could access rooms they weren't supposed to. Jeb swiped his hand across it, and it sunk into the ground.

I whistled loudly, "Fancy doors you got here."

Jeb adjusted his glasses, but didn't say anything. He walked over to a wall, blank and white as usual. He tapped the wall, and it started growing luminescent blue veins. The bright, white room got brighter, almost blindingly white. I shielded my eyes, and when I got over the temporary blindness the room looked completely different. There was a white pallet, a shelf, and a set of cabinets. Jeb motioned for me to sit on the pallet, and I slowly shifted over to it, never taking my eyes off of him.

He turned to the cabinets and got something out of them. He flicked whatever it was and turned to face me. It was a syringe, I immediately tensed up. The thought of anything puncturing my skin gave me the willies. I backed up farther on the pallet, the awe in me gone.

"Don't worry, it's only a mild sedative mixed with a numbing agent."

"Only?" I cried out, "Don't worry, it's only some drugs that the nice high-tech kidnappers are giving you. You shouldn't be worried at all. Next thing you know you're going to tell me kids should run with scissors and take candy with strangers when they get in the van with them!" I added sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes and started walking across the short room. "Don't get any closer." I threatened whilst backing farther away. He kept walking.

He reached me and I tried to swat it away. I knocked his wrist back only slightly, I was really weak. He walked slowly, with one hand out, like an animal trainer meeting a dangerous new animal for the first time; the only thing missing were affectionate whispers of "who's a good girl".

"I said don't get any closer!" My voice was cracking big time, and I knew it wasn't threatening at all.

It seemed like Jeb got tired of me backing away. He took one big stride towards me, which put me in a corner. He stabbed it into my thigh and I screamed in fear more than anything else. Immediately afterwards I couldn't feel anything. The muscles in my face started dropping, and I felt like a big container of pudding. "Now isn't that easier?" He joked. I couldn't say anything in return because my mouth had drooped so much and I couldn't move my muscles. "Well, that will make the rest of this easier." He pulled out a few more syringes, "Of course, the sedative should kick in first."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This chapter was also written by demigodflock. The following chapters will have been written by me, but I'll be doing my best to follow the plot they provided me. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

I woke up to crisper vision, better hearing, and a massive headache. Major sensory overload. "Uuuuuuuuuugh." I moaned loudly.  
"Oh look, she's finally up." Some red-headed, green eyed girl remarked. "I guess we can all rejoice, the queen has awoken."  
"Wuuuuuuuuu?" I mumbled.  
"Oh, she's a genius too!"  
I flailed my arms towards that person, happy that I was regaining some control of my body. "Go away." I slurred angrily.  
She laughed, which sounded like a butterfly fluttering in the breeze. "Welcome to phase three, I'm Cassidy."  
"Sarah." I grumbled indignantly.  
Cassidy hit my back jokingly, "That's a good kiddie." She stood up and walked out of my direct vision. I tried to prop myself up to a sitting position, but I flopped onto my back. I felt some sort of odd discomfort on my back, which made me curious. There were mentions of monkeys before I was injected with mystery liquids. Could that be a side effect of whatever happened? Did I have a tail?  
"Cassidy!" I tried to yell, which came out as more of a croak. "Help?" My throat was burning from thirst, my voice became more and more crackly with every word.  
She turned to me, and grabbed my outstretched hand. She yanked me up, and I almost fell over. Cassidy held her arms out to stop me from falling. "Goodness kid, what did they do to you? Most people can at least stand up on their own after a visit to the 'all powerful' Jeb Batchleder."  
I leaned against Cassidy, resting on her shoulder. "Um. Something about... Monkeys? I mean, I don't know. I'm so confused." I huffed, breathing hard from just standing, my tongue was getting dry as well from breathing through my mouth so much. "Oh god. Why can't I... Breathe?"  
"Just a side effect, you'll get over it eventually. And by eventually I mean soon, by at least tomorrow. If you don't, Jeb's gonna have to drop you from the program." Cassidy answered. "I mean, he shouldn't. Guessing that you're kinda important. I mean, he doesn't add people for no good reason. Nobody here has the same mutation besides the standard package."  
"Standard package?"  
"Yeah. A raise in pain tolerance, that can come with a few side effects though: numbness, death, and other bad stuff. Then there's stuff to facilitate flight: air sacks so you can breathe at super high altitudes, light bones, and in your case, smallness."  
"I was small before" I protested pathetically. I sucked in a deep breath, and I felt my lungs fill. I felt something else with it, like a set of extra lungs. That was probably what Cassidy had been talking about. "Woah." I got slightly dizzy from all of the air entering my body.  
"Yeah, try not to take really deep breaths unless you need to. Just saying. Also, you can breathe underwater. It's pretty cool, fun too. Enhanced senses, which can sometimes be counteracted by some animal mutations. Lastly, we all have stronger, more flexible muscles. Just the basic mutant package."  
"Well I don't feel that strong." I chuckled slightly. Cassidy's explanation explained quite a bit. My knees buckled slightly. "I feel more thirsty than anything."  
She bent over slightly, and heaved me back up. "We need to sit you down and get you up to speed. And some water."  
She took me over, stepping slowly, to a chair. "Feel better?" She asked cautiously as I sat down.  
I didn't feel any better. The discomfort from when I was lying down was back. My leg muscles still felt wobbly and I was swaying uncontrollably. "Not really." I told Cassidy. "It feels like there's a big lump on my back. It's really not fun."  
"Hm." Cassidy reached back out to me. "I wanna see something." I leaned on her again, but this time we were in more of a trust fall position. "So you say they matched you with a monkey?"  
"Yeah. Why?"  
"Well. You have a tail."  
"What?" I screamed. "Lemme see!"  
"Not yet. Can you feel it?"  
I closed my eyes and focused on the lump. I started feeling a coil in place of the lump. I tried to move it, but I was having a hard time. I started to feel it wiggle. It wasn't numb anymore. It started tickling my back and I almost screamed, instead I let out an excited squeal.  
"I'm gonna take that as a yes."  
I nodded excitedly. "I think I can move it!"  
"Wow. I couldn't move my wings for at least a week. And that was when they were tiny."  
"Wings?" I asked, almost in a panic. "Are they like bird wings?" I hoped that Cassidy wasn't the girl with red wings that I'd insulted. Then I remembered that Valencia whoever had said that she was phase one, and I was put in phase three.  
She giggled. "No, they're butterfly wings."  
"Can you fly?" I asked nervously. I felt kind of intrusive in asking, but the curious side of me won out. "What else can you do?"  
"Well I've been working on flying. Right now the most I can do is glide. I can survive off plant nectar. Um, I enjoy long walks on the beach and I'm an exceptional cook." She laughed at the end.  
"I'm gonna guess you could stand when you woke up."  
"Yeah, but everyone is different. Evelyn, our resident hummingbird, couldn't stand because her wings were heavy."  
"There are other kids?"  
"Yeah. You're just in the arriving room. I was here waiting for food when you showed up. I'm still waiting for the food. Did you think we were the only ones?"  
I nodded my head no shakily. Cassidy knew I was lying and laughed at my pathetic cover up. "Well we have to wait for the food to come, then we can go back to the other room."  
"Water?" I asked, trying to keep my speech to a minimum as my thirst greatened.  
"There's water in the other room. But you'd have to walk there by yourself. You think you can handle that?" Cassidy asked, eyes locked on the door.  
I thought about it for a little, and decided that I would try. I remembered in the report I wrote that Squirrel Monkeys used their tails to balance. I tried to straighten out my tail to help myself stand upright. My tail twitched slightly, I tried to command it like a leg or an arm, but it wouldn't flex or contract. I knew since the tail was new that it would take a long time to be fully functional. A tail was all muscle, so that meant I should've been at least able to move it.  
My tail wasn't moving, so I decided that I would just have to crawl if I wanted water. Cassidy had found me only a few hours ago, if that, which meant I had no idea how long I had been knocked out. I knew I needed water, and I couldn't wait for Cassidy and the food. Cassidy probably wouldn't be able to carry the food and me into the room; she was relying on the fact that I would figure it out.  
"Where's the door?" I asked shakily.  
"Right behind us. Just lean on the door, it'll open. If it doesn't, I'll do it for you."  
I got on all fours and started crawling. Suddenly, my tail popped up. I waved it slowly from side to side, and started to get up. I did so slowly because I knew I was dehydrated after being knocked out for a long time. Every couple of seconds I would stand a little taller, lose and regain my balance, and get dizzy. Eventually I was standing upright.  
"I'm doing it! I'm standing on my own!" I cheered.  
I started hobbling over to the door. I was excited to be able to walk, I almost started running, but my feet were uncomfortable in my shoes and I didn't want to push my boundaries. I waddled, then started actually walking like the way I remembered. I was so excited until I looked down at my feet.


End file.
